JANUARY ON INSTAGRAM

January has been a pretty quiet and relaxing month for me. I had Graeme here for the first week (plus a few visitors for NYE), but there’s been so many cold and stormy days so for the most of January it’s seemed like the best idea is to just stay inside. This is probably why I’ve taken so many instagrams of my dog Bo this month! Good thing she’s so photogenic. There’s been a few nice and sunny days in between at least though, and today is actually one of them. Hopefully it’ll stay like this too, as I’m planning a trip to the mountains to do some snowboarding tomorrow!

PS. In case you’re looking to follow me on instagram, my screen name is hildeandhercamera! :)

WHAT I'M WORKING ON: OH, HELLO!

So I recently installed a new extension on my Google Chrome called Hola, and it may have ruined my life. Or enhanced it, I’m not entirely sure yet. Either way, with this extension I can now watch Netflix for any country in the world. And not only that, but I can now also watch British channels like BBC iPlayer and Channel 4OD. In other words, I had a Sunday of catching up with all my favorite Kirstie Allsopp shows. I like to have something to work on while I’m watching TV though, so I decided to do a little wall art project inspired by this one at A Beautiful Mess. I currently have tons of wall space and not enough art, so I’m always looking to add to my collection. As I didn’t have a thrifted painting to begin with though, I opted to paint the background myself first, and since I did that I also decided that I wanted the white a bit translucent so you could still see the color shining through. I also struggled a little in choosing what words to put on it, and since my letters were so big I ended up with an “OH, HELLO!”. I already have a picture a friend did that says “Hello”, so I figured if I put them near each other it’ll almost be like my wall is having a conversation. Yes? No? Just me? 

LOMOGRAPHY SMARTPHONE FILM SCANNER

Graeme got a Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner for Christmas (from me, ha!), and I've been pretty excited to try it out (it was a gift to him, I swear). So in stead of getting my photos scanned to a disc last time I went to the photo shop, I decided to just get them developed and then scan them myself.

These pictures were taken with the Diana F+ and the 35 mm back with the square with sprocket holes frame, in and around Stavanger. The scanner was pretty easy to use, and one good thing about it is that it easily picks up the sprocket holes, which a lot of photo scanners don't. 

However, there were definitely a few downsides. When you scan them onto your smartphone, the picture only takes up about a third of the screen, which reduces the resolution quite significantly. As you can see, the images also turned out really blue. I did a bit of research into why this happened, and I have been led to believe that this is because the print film base is red, so some of the red gets canceled out? I'm not really sure I understand this explanation though, does anyone have a better one? Apparently they wouldn't be so blue if I got them scanned in a photo lab though, so that's good to know.

The scanner definitely can't compare to a professional scan, so there's a good chance I'll take these rolls of film to the shop to get them scanned in the photo lab at some point. But it's a fun toy either way!

MY BEAR MUG / SIMPLE IMAGE TRANSFER

I don't really have a massive background story for this, other than I was playing around with transferring some drawings onto porcelain, and thought I'd share how I did it. I have these pretty plain mugs I wanted to personalize a little, but I have a pretty shaky hand so I didn't want to draw directly onto my mug in case I mess it up. Drawing my design out on paper first is a lot less risky. I've seen people do this using carbon paper, but all you really need is a soft pencil and regular paper. Printer paper will do nicely.  

(1)  First I drew my image on a regular piece of paper using a soft pencil. I opted for a bear with a fez holding a cup of tea. Obviously. (2) Then I placed the design on my mug where I wanted it (with the drawn side facing the mug), and taped it in place.

(3) I then went over the design with my pencil again, applying plenty of pressure so that the image would transfer from the paper to the cup. (4) I removed the paper, and went over my bear with a porcelain pen and followed the instructions. I also decided to add a bit of detail to my bear, like fur and a knitted jumper.

And that's about it! I shall now invite my friend over for a cup of tea. 

FAVORITE PANCAKE RECIPE

I

I'm sick. I won't go into details, but it's at the point where a co-worker pointed it out to me at work yesterday. And there's something about feeling like crap and knowing you also look like you feel like crap that makes it even worse. I have a very quiet weekend of recovering planned ahead of me though (and I'm still in a state able to knit, so that's good news!), so hopefully this won't last very long. But in between the Strepsils and the Lemsips, I decided I wanted pancakes for breakfast. I think pancakes might be my favouite kind of breakfast, and being ill seemed like a good excuse to treat myself. And this is my favorite pancake recipe (of the American variety). There's no fancy flavor combinations or anything, but they pretty much never fail and I usually always have the ingredients at hand. So despite feeling terrible, I can still have my pancakes for breakfast. And as it's a basic pancake recipe, you can easily add a couple ingredients to make blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes, or whichever flavor you like. 

I'm not entirely sure where I got the recipe from, as I've had it for years on a little piece of paper (that far too often gets lost!). I've also changed the recipe a little over the years to fit what I tend to have ready at hand. The only thing in the recipe that I don't always have is the yogurt, but it can easily be substituted with either sour cream or buttermilk. 

Pancakes recipe:
280 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
100 g sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
500 ml natural yogurt
2 large eggs
30 g melted butter

Directions:
Add all the dry stuff to a medium bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Mix it all together, and add the wet stuff: yogurt, eggs and butter. Fry in butter pan on a medium low heat. Flip once the pancake is covered in bubbles. Serve with whatever you like. Today, I opted for bacon, syrup and fresh blueberries. Good morning!

MORGANITE CARDIGAN PROGRESS

I'm just over a ball of yarn in, and so far so good. As the first part of the cardigan mainly consists of the a stocking stitch, I've been distracting myself with episodes of Mad Men to keep it from becoming boring. I'm absolutely loving the yarn, it is so soft and great to work with. And so far I'm quite happy to report that I haven't made any major errors and my cardigan contains no holes. Let's hope that doesn't change!

PS. I came across a book about unfinished knitting projects today, so I guess if I do get bored and decide to abandon it I can always take a picture of it and send it in to the author, in case she's planning a second volume.

THE PRINT EXCHANGE 2014

Last week I signed up for another one of Art House's projects - The Print Exchange 2014. I'm very excited. The idea is that you create and submit an edition of 12 prints on the theme of "let this be a sign", and then you'll get 10 different prints in return made by the other participants. I haven't quite decided what to make yet, but I have a few ideas and looking forward to the process.

I very much enjoyed doing the Pen Pal Painting Exchange last year, so thought this would be fun too. I actually recently got a handmade card in the post from my new pen pal, and it totally made my day!

Happy printing!

A KNITTED TEXTURED BOW TIE

So, before you start thinking I’m one of those girlfriends who makes weird stuff for their boyfriend and then forces him to wear it against their will—Graeme actually requested this bow tie. Well, more specifically he wanted a crocheted one. And my plan for the longest time, was to make him one and then send it to him in the post (being able to send each other post is potentially the only fun part of being in a long distance relationship). But, due to my poor organizing skills, this actually ended up being one of his presents. Small presents are important too!

Instead of crocheting the bow tie though, I decided to knit it in a lovely moss knitting stitch for texture (random fact: this stitch is called a pearl knitting stitch in Norwegian. Pearl knitting stitch sounds much nicer than moss, no?). This is a super simple knitting project, and it’s really quick to make too. All you need is some yarn, 3.5 mm knitting needles, an elastic and a stitching needle to assemble everything. I chose an inexpensive wool yarn in charcoal grey. 

ONE: Start by knitting the bigger piece. Using 3.5 knitting needles, make 15 stitches (measuring approx. 5 cm). For each row, knit one, purl one til the end of the row. Turn the piece around and repeat. Aas you have an odd number of stitches this will result in the moss knitting stitch without you having to think about starting one row on a purl and one on a knit, etc. Repeat until the piece measures about 8 cm.

TWO: For the smaller piece, using the same needles, knit 5 stitches (measuring approx. 1 cm). Using the same stitch,  knit until the piece measures about 5 cm.

Step 3: Assemble by pinching the bigger piece, and wrapping the small piece around the middle. Stitch it in place, and add the elastic. I cut the elastic to measure approximately 15 cm, so that it would fit nicely around Graeme's neck but also loose enough that he can easily get it over his head. And voila! Attach to your favorite man.

Though let’s be honest, I’m totally one of those girlfriends who makes weird stuff for their boyfriend and then makes him wear it. Hopefully not against his will, though!

DECEMBER ON INSTAGRAM

December was a month full of storms, rain and thunder (and a day of snow!). Graeme came to visit for Christmas and New Years and stayed a whole 3 weeks though, which definitely made the weather more tolerable! We also had friends come visit from the UK for New Years, so that was great fun. We managed to get a trip up to the slopes and did some snowboarding, and celebrated 2014 at my parents cabin on the southern coast of Norway. Hope you had a good December too!